08/19/2011

Talk about an odd plane incident. Passengers aboard a Moscow-bound Boeing 757 flying from Blagoveshchensk were in for a nasty shock when bees started buzzing around the cabin mid-flight, Yakutia Airlines said Thursday.

"Ladies and gentlemen please fasten your seat belts, make sure that your seats are in the full upright position and pay attention as our cabin crew demonstrate the safety features on this Superjet SSJ-100," said the captain's voice.

A first lady's ceremonial duties are many, but Svetlana Medvedeva may claim the oddest of all should she accept an invitation to chair the first national congress of blondes as the "main blonde of the country."

It was hot in Moscow's Gorky Park on Thursday, but not just because of the sweltering temperatures. A crowd of entrepreneurs stood roused to fever pitch as the management of the Skolkovo Foundation selected who would be formally deemed the 100th resident from among 31 new participants of the innovation hub.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on Thursday agreed to consider funding road construction by the state-run company Avtodor, which needs $12.6 billion in nonstate money through 2019.

Issue 4705

Children crawling over a tank in direct view of the Kremlin on the first day of the ill-fated coup attempt by hard-line Communists on Aug. 19, 1991.